Introduction to Angora Colors

by Angie Kolifrath

  WHITE I am starting off this new course with a color you may assume is easy. Well, guess again! Not all what seems white is white in angora colors. To start off with, ARBA allows 3 different white angora colors to be shown in the white class: - Ruby eyed White (REW) - Blue eyed White (BEW) - Pointed white (Himilayan or himi)

  Another color that can pop up in litters will look white to the untrained eye, but the eye color will be a dead pointer to the unshowable color of ERMINE. This article will cover all of these colors, and what to look for in the nestbox and beyond it to help identify the true white rabbit for show, and the wooler/pet ermine. I will also explain how to tell a pearl from a true white angora. Rules of Thumb: ALL REW, BEW, ermine, himi and pearl babies are born pink and will stay pink for 2-3 days. Then they will ALL turn white first. A dark Pearl will show a dark shadow on the skin followed by a beige color (much like the hair on a simaese cat) IF it's a good, show-quality pearl. I have seen a lot of pearls entered in shows, even ARBA Convention, that had very white body wool and very little face mask. The good pearl will not be white after birth, but chances are that you'll find a white baby that will end up being a pearl later.

  At 10-11 days, check the eye color on your white babies, this is the first indicator of what color you'll have. - REW babies will have pink eyes. - BEW babies will have deep , clear blue eyes (not gray blue, not gray, but a deep sea blue) - Himi babies will have pink eyes as well. - Pearl babies and ermines will have blue/gray, gray or brown eyes.

  Pearl babies should have beige hair covering the body by now, and should show a dark mask of color on their face and ears. Ermine babies, if born in winter, will show a mask or a spot on the nose as well, but not as well defined as shown by a pearl. Ermine babies born in warm weather will be white, and might show a very faint shadow of color on the ears and nose, often confused and labeled as himis (pointed white). People tend to forget that pointed white (himi) has ruby/pink eyes. Ermine is possible if you have chestnut and chinchilla mixed up in your pedigrees. A ermine is a chinchilla that doesn't show the ring definition due to lacking a color gene, and ermine is a heat sensitive color. In summer they will be white, in winter they will have a frosting of color here and there, often on the face and ears, and sometimes over the back. The wool itself will be white in an ermine and the color will be on the tip of the wool, a tell-tail sign between pearl (not heat sensitive) and ermine (heat sensitive). Pearl is classified as a shaded color, so if you do not have chestnut and/or chinchilla in your pedigrees but some shaded colors, such as pearl, sable, seal, tort, chances ARE good that you have a pearl on your hands. Pearls will carry the color on the colored parts of the body from tip to skin, the face mask will not be frosted but carry color all the way. Pearls are showable in ARBA shows, while ermines are not and should be sold as pets/woolers.

  Now, your baby has ruby eyes: it's a REW. REW bred to REW can only produce REW. REW is a albino, and albino bred to albino can only produce another albino. However, albino rabbits CAN hide certain color genes and pass them on. Consider a REW as a colored rabbit covered up with a white sheet. You will not know what is hidden under that colored sheet unless you breed the white rabbit to tested and proven colors in your rabbitry. For example: REW is the only color that can hide the broken gene. A solid colored rabbit (non-broken) can never hide or produce a broken colored baby. ONLY by breeding a REW to a proven, non-broken gene carrier Rabbit can you see if the REW carries the broken gene or not. Breed a REW with broken pattern in it's background to a colored rabbit that is not broken, if there is a broken color baby in the litter, mark the REW rabbit as being a broken pattern carrier. REW can also hide certain other color patterns, like the agouti pattern, the steel pattern, etc.

  Now, your baby is white and has blue eyes = chances are that you have BEW in your lines. BEW is NOT a eye color that can come out of nowhere. You'll have to have BEW carriers, and only carriers can create BEW. BEW carriers are BEW and babies that come out of BEW bred to color litters. If you have BEW carriers (check pedigrees), breed siblings to each other to combine the gene and chances are that ytou'll get a true BEW in a litter. But, be warned, a ermine with blue/ gray eyes will never be a BEW, even so you will see them advertised often and sold as BEW. BEW angoras will always have clean, all white wool, and will never show frosting on the wool in winter.

  Last but not least, you have a white baby with pink eyes, and at age 2-3 weeks you'll find a small dark spot forming on the nose, and you'll see that the ears are getting darker and the tail is getting color. You have a pointed white baby. Pointed white is a heat sensitive color that needs 2-3 weeks to develop on a baby. There are 4 colors in pointed white. The color name pertains to the color of the points: black, chocolate, blue or lilac color on the nose, ears, feet and tail. In winter a pointed white should have clearly defined color on all points. In summer the color will fade. Some pointed angoras can turn pretty white all over in the summer. The darker the points, and the more defined the color the better. To get nicely marked and less sensitive coloring, always breed himi to himi. Keep it in a line and do not dilute. Establish a small group of himi does and bucks, and keep them seperate from other colors and develop them on their own.

  People ask me, "If a himi has color, why is it entered in the white class at shows?" Classes at shows are determined by the "usable part of the pelt." In the case of himis, the body wool is white. So, they are entered into the white class, and judged along with the REW and BEW angoras in that breed class. Himi is the only colored angora that belongs in the white class.